This day in history
Today is Wednesday, Aug. 3, the 215th day of 2022. There are 150 days left in the year.
Birthdays: Singer Tony Bennett is 96. Actor Martin Sheen is
82. Football Hall of Famer Lance Alworth is 82. Lifestyle guru Martha Stewart is 81. Movie director John Landis is 72. Hockey Hall-of-Famer Marcel Dionne is 71. Actor Isaiah Washington is 59. Hip-hop artist Spinderella (Salt-N-Pepa) is
51. NFL quarterback Tom Brady is 45. Actor Evangeline Lilly is
43. Actor Mamie Gummer is 39. Olympic gold medal swimmer Ryan Lochte is 38.
▶ In 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Palos, Spain, on a voyage that took him to the present-day Americas.
▶ In 1916, Irish-born British diplomat Roger Casement, a strong advocate of independence for Ireland, was hanged for treason.
▶ In 1936, Jesse Owens of the United States won the first of his four gold medals at the Berlin Olympics as he took the 100meter sprint.
▶ In 1972, the US Senate ratified the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty between the United States and the Soviet Union. (The United States unilaterally withdrew in 2002.)
▶ In 1981, US air traffic controllers went on strike, despite a warning from President Reagan they would be fired, which they were.
▶ In 1993, the Senate voted 96-to-3 to confirm Supreme Court nominee Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
▶ In 1994, Stephen G. Breyer was sworn in as the Supreme Court’s newest justice in a private ceremony at Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist’s Vermont summer home.
▶ In 2012, Michael Phelps rallied to win the 100-meter butterfly for his third gold of the London Games and No. 17 of his career. Missy Franklin set a world record in the 200 backstroke for the 17-year-old’s third gold in London.
▶ In 2014, Israel withdrew most of its ground troops from the Gaza Strip in an apparent winding down of a nearly monthlong operation against Hamas that had left more than 1,800 Palestinians and more than 60 Israelis dead.
▶ Last year, New York’s state attorney general said an investigation into Governor Andrew Cuomo found that he had sexually harassed multiple current and former state government employees; the report brought increased pressure on Cuomo to resign. (Cuomo resigned a week later.) New York became the nation’s first big city to announce it would require proof of COVID-19 vaccination at restaurants, shows, and gyms. The Taliban pressed ahead with their advances in southern Afghanistan, capturing most of the Helmand provincial capital.